German heavyweights Borussia Dortmund kick off their Champions League campaign with a home game against Danish club side FC Copenhagen.
Venue: Signal Iduna Park (Dortmund)
Key Statistics
Borussia Dortmund are unbeaten against Danish teams, with a win and a draw against Brondby in the 1993/94 UEFA Cup the only other encounters.
The 1997 European champions are in the Champions League group stage for the 17th time and the seventh year in a row – a club record run.
They have kept three clean sheets in their last five competitive games.
The hosts failed to win in five of their last seven European home games (W2, D3, L2).
FC Copenhagen have kept four clean sheets in their last six group stage appearances in the UEFA Champions League (W2, D3, L1).
The visitors have never beaten Bundesliga opposition in UEFA competition in 10 attempts.
They have failed to win 13 of their 15 UCL away games proper (D2, L11).
They are unbeaten in their last nine away games in Europe (W6, D3).
Head to head
Tuesday’s game will mark the third meeting between Borussia Dortmund and Copenhagen. The two teams last faced off in the UEFA Europa League qualifiers in the 2001-02 campaign, which the Bundesliga giants won 2-0 on aggregate.
Latest performances in all competition
Dortmund: W-W-L-W-W
Copenhagen: W-L-D-W-W
Borussia Dortmund
Borussia Dortmund will look to get their UEFA Champions League campaign off to a winning start when they welcome Copenhagen to Westfalenstadion this Tuesday.
The German giants endured a shambolic campaign under Marco Rose last time out, being knocked out of both the Champions League and the Europa League at the same time.
After their shambolic European campaign Dortmund have so far brought in Edin Terzic to replace the departed Marco Rose and the new coach has started has taken his era off to a blistering start with four wins in their opening five games, despite losing top scorer Erling Haaland and Manuel Akanji to Manchester City.
Dortmund are in Group G which features Manchester City, Sevilla and Copenhagen, and will fancy their chances of making it to the next round behind Manchester City with the English powerhouse considered the group favourites and with Sevilla and Copenhagen struggling in recent times.
Edin Terzic’s men come into this game off the back of a 1-0 win over Hoffenheim in the German Bundesliga, the second game in a row which the Germans have won with the same scoreline. The loss of Erling Haaland was always going to be hard to deal with but with the likes of Jude Bellingham, Youssoufa Moukoko and Marco Reus fit and inform, Edin Terzic will be counting on his skipper and his generals to inspire his team to victory as they aim to pick up three vital points.
Possible Dortmund starting line-up
Gregor Kobel; Thomas Meunier, Nico Schlotterbeck, Mats Hummels, Marius Wolf; Jude Bellingham, Salih Ozcan, Julian Brandt; Marco Reus, Thorgan Hazard, Anthony Modeste
Injured: Mahmoud Dahoud, Mateu Morey, Raphael Guerreiro
Doubtful: Donyell Malen, Karim Adeyemi, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens
Suspended: None
Unavailable: Sebastien Haller
FC Copenhagen
With four wins and four losses, Copenhagen have not had the best start to the season in the Danish domestic League and find themselves facing the daunting task of making it to the next round in the Champions League Group stage.
A trip to the Westfalenstadion is a challenging task for any team as the boisterous crowd are always in full support of their home team, making the atmosphere intimidating for the opposition players and head coach Jess Thorup will be hoping that his side can defy the odds and leave Germany with a positive result.
The tie will be the first encounter between both sides as they look to start off their campaign on a strong note.
Jess Thorup will be hoping that his team put their domestic issues behind them as they lock horns with the German heavyweights.
With the domestic games coming fast and thick, the Danish Champions will be all the keener to start putting together a string of wins as they look to rescue their season.
Possible Copenhagen starting line-up
Mathew Ryan; Kevin Diks, Denis Vavro, Davit Khocholava, Victor Kristiansen; Lukas Lerager, Zeca, Rasmus Falk Jensen; Viktor Claesson, Mohammed Daramy, Andreas Cornelius.
Injured: Kamil Grabara, Roony Bardghji
Doubtful: Marios Oikonomou
Suspended: None
Prediction
Dortmund 2-0 Copenhagen
